-one

66

der Robesoune, Master John Lyndisai, my parish minister, and sundry others. In the first place, he acknowledges that he possesses five oxen-two cows -two animals, of the age of two years lye* quy," of the age of one year-one lye stot," of the age of one year one "ly bull," of the age of three years-one "ly stot," of the age of two years-four " ly moderlesse calvis"-xxxvij old sheep-xxij "lie hoggis"+-utensils and household furniture to the amount of xls-in oats sown upon the ground, to the amount of xl bolls-in barley sown, iii bols.

"Debts which are owing to him: In the first place, Allan Lockhart of Lie, and Alexander Lockhart in Wickitschaw, ixxx merks of money.

"Debts which are owing by him to others:

In the first place, to the Laird for the rent of the land, two marks, viiid: Also, to Andrew Cadder, xxti marks: Also, to Gawin Stewart, lxxx marks et iii marks, in order, as it is termed in our native language, to rentall him, at my Lord of Glasgui's hand, of fyve mark land of Daildowie Wester, and xxjs land in Mosplat: Also, to John Steill, xijs: Also, to John Scott, xxs: Also to Janet Speir, x pecks of barley: Also, to Thomas Russel, xls: Also, to William Wallace, xs: Also, to Alex Roger, vis: Also, to Thomas Smyth. iiii s. (Including a few more insignificant payments to other obscure people.)

Seeing that there is nothing more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the hour, Therefore I, Allan Stewart, entire in body and mind, make my testament as follows: In the first place, I leave my soul to the Almighty, and to the Blessed Virgin, and to all the Saints of Christ's Church in heaven; and my body to the earth, with four pennies to the Cathedral of Saint Mungo: I nominate my executors, Elizabeth Tait, my spouse, and James Douglas in Todhallis, to dispone for the good of my soul, as they will answer for their conduct to the great Judge at the last day. I moreover bequeath to my spouse, as follows in the vulgar :

"I Allane Stewart, intendis, God

*The French "le," usually prefixed to all Scotch terms introduced into our Latin documents.

+ Young sheep.

willing, to pass wyt my Lord Governoure and my Lord Zester to ye bordoure, to ye defence of ye Realme: Item, I leyf to my wife All my Steddingis yat I haif of my Lord Zester in Auhtarmuire, during hir lyftyme, wyt, all my gudis, movable and immovable, and to use it to the proffeit and utilitie of hirself and effume Stewart, my dochter, and eufame to abide at ye command and counsall of hir moder; and I Ordain hir to use hir at the command and plessoure of hir moder, in all maner of sortis: Item, I Ordane Gawane Stewart, my sone, to geyf effame my dochter xx for geire yat I loupt to him in Edinburcht, and ane gray horse, scho budand at ye consall and comand of hir moder and her broyer; and as to ye lard of leyse payment, ye contrakkis beris in yaim self I tak one my saule, I gat nevir na payment of him, excepte jc merkis of money.".

[Confirmed 22d June 1548.]

Instead then of blazing at tournaments, and of "commanding" armies, this humble race have only been solicitous to gain a decent livelihood by raising a moderate crop of oats and barley; instead of entering into solemn political negotiations with neighbouring barons, we find their representative implementing a bargain with a village matron for the sale of a few pecks of his grain ;-instead of richly caparisoned steeds and palfreys, he has nothing in the shape of such an animal;+-baronial castles are transformed into steadings; circumambient moats into preliminary dunghills; the daughter of the house, whom we might have fancied noble, and peerless, with a splendid retinue of obsequious knights, and damsels arrayed in magnificent apparel, into possibly some such ordinary garlic-eating wench, though probably not so dainty in her diet, as crazed the intellects of the knight of La Mancha; for whom the damage of certain rejected clothing and accoutrements, transferred by her father to her bro

*Either twenty pounds, marks, shillings, or pence, it is impossible to tell which, a shred of the paper in the original being torn away.

Yat I loupt to him in Edinburcht.— "To Loup-to change masters-to pass from one possessor to another; applied to property." Jamieson.

Not Allan certainly it is even doubtful if his son Gawin then possessed one.

ther Gawin, about to commence his bucolical career, was an ample dower; not to forget the generous donation of the gray steed, the lordly possessor of hereditary trophies of ancient valour, armour, pennons, and ensanguined banners, won by the illustrious Allantons of departed memory, at the battles of Dundalk, Morningside, and elsewhere, dwindles down into the humble owner of a scanty farm, some stots, and of four motherless calves!

The rank and condition of the family is easily gathered from the testament without any commentary. It may be only observed, that the entire household plenishing and furniture,the boards upon which they reposed their hardy limbs, after, in many cases, but a hopeless wrestling with a stubborn and ungrateful soil, where some of the common fruits of the earth never arrive at maturity, the platters, trenchers, and salt-vats, &c. affording but slender means of appeasing the cravings of an appetite not a little exasperated by the vicinage of the keen air of the Shotts, clothes, vessels, &c. &c. every thing within the walls of the steading amounted to the mighty value of forty shillings, at that time the price of the common military implement, a cross-bow; as also, of a friar's cloak, and of the homely utensil, a mortar and pestle, adapted for an ordinary family.*

Contrasted with what these must have been, the goods and chattels in communion, in the well-known ballad of "The Vowing of Jock and Jynny," written at least a very few years after the death of Allan, if not before it, that were to crown the approaching nuptial felicity of that rustic pair, which Lord Hailes has pronounced ludicrous and wretched, and which he quotes as a good example of the "

cur

ta supellex" of the inferior orders of the community of Scotland in the sixteenth century, would nevertheless strike us as luxurious and profuse.

And yet the age was lavish in furniture, and apparel, or "abulsiments" and moveables of all descriptions, to a degree that by a modern person could scarcely be credited, as might easily be proved by the adduction of many contemporary inventories-a mania which descended even to the lowest vulgar.

That Allan was a farmer, or rentaller, and not even a petty fewar, is evident from his allusion to the property which in any shape he retained; to the " steddingis yat (he) haid of my Lord Zester in Auchtermuire ;"and to the lands of wester Daldüe, belonging to the Bishop of Glasgow, in which Gawin is to be rentalled, and NOT INFEFT:† The former, the ancient estate of Allanton, which, according to Candidus, was bestowed in full property, by the Church, upon their immediate vassal, Sir Allan Stewart of Daldüe [whose father was "second cousin to Robert the Second," in the year 1420, in reward of his military services! The other, upon the same authority, that still more venerable possession, or 66 barony," as it is called, " upon the Clyde" near Glasgow, that Sir Robert Stewart, the progenitor" certainly" of one of the most ancient branches of the house of Stewart," had obtained "in patrimony" from his father, Sir John Stewart of

Jamieson.

+ The term "rental" is abundantly known. Farmers, in these days, were for the most part stationary upon the grounds of their landlord, and hence sometimes came to be styled native rentallers.

I admit, that as now, it was at this period expedient, occasionally, even for absolute proprietors, to rentall, or take in lease, some necessary portion of the territory of their neighbours; but it is extremely obvious, that without a certain quantity of land feudally held, none then could be admitted into the ranks of gentry, or possess the smallest political consideration in the country. The speculations of Candidus upon the term fewar are now utterly irrelevant.

Bonkill, killed at Falkirk in the year 1298, to whom it is thus alleged originally to have belonged, and not to the See of Glasgow, who, notwithstanding, were the ancient proprietors.

*

The family of Yester, or Tweeddale, held all Auchtermuir Blench of the opulent religious house of Arbroath,* upon which, previous to the reign of David II., the high privileges of a regality had been conferred.† Agree ably to the usage that prevailed in such great jurisdictions, the Abbot of Arbroath would, in the event of the general raising of the militia of the country to repel such an invasion as that of the Earl of Hertford, in the year 1547, evidently alluded to by Allan in his testament, have the leading of the men of Auchtermuir, who would necessarily rally under his clerical banner. By various notices, however, in the Chartulary of Arbroath, it appears that the Abbots were in the habit of delegating to their vassal, Lord Yester, the duty of discharging many of their civil rights, such as the office of justiciary, within the limits of Auchtermuir. Hence, they would not fail also to invest him with those

of a military nature; and, accordingly,

Allan Stewart, along with other peasantry of the muir, is to accompany Lord Yester, acting for the Abbot, to the border.

Mr John Brown, and that precious family manuscript, have so utterly metamorphosed those early members of the family of Allanton, that it might have defied their own acquaintance to have recognised them not to advert to the more obvious disguisements, for whom this personage, Sir James Tait of Ernock, stands proxy, I know not,

The Tweeddale family were seated there as far back as the year 1432. Chart of Arbroath, Ad. Lib. fol. 39 b.

-but I peremptorily defy any one to prove his existence. They have totally suppressed Gawin and Euphan, but dropt their own offspring into their nests; but these exotics, not agreeing with the change of climate, are all suffered piteously to die away; an expedient indispensible, in order to give the thing a natural appearance, it being rather an odd race that was in the habit of producing only one member at a time. When these authorities are so accurate in modern points, they must assuredly be much more so in those of greater antiquity, and hence, upon their bare allegation, and in the absence of any other evidence, we must believe in the prodigies of Dundalk and Morningside, and all that has been asserted of this unparalleled family. The eventual fate of Gawin and Euphan I have not been able to unravel; these are the only faint glimmerings Í have detected respecting them.--I have now trespassed sufficiently, for the present, upon the attention of your readers-if their patience be not altogether exhausted, perhaps the residue of "the Historie" may be forthcoming in the course of your next Number. J. R.

111, George Street, }

9th August 1817.

P. S.-I see it is inaccurately stated, that "the learned and worthy Baronmemoration of a tournament in which et" bears in his arms a spear, in comthe Hero of the day of Morningside is that, on the 21st of December 1815, supposed to have shared.-The fact is, the present Lyon Depute-who exercises even royal prerogatives-conferred upon him, and certain heirs in remainders by " Patent," a new honourable augmentation, a broken spear, surmounted by a helmet, as a further mark of his (Sir Allan's) gallantry in that engagement;"-as also the motto, "Virtutis in bello præmium."

AMBER IMBEDDED IN LIMESTONE.

Edinburgh, July 29, 1817.

MR EDITOR, HAVING observed in the last Number of your Magazine, that Count Dunin Borkowsky had announced his having discovered amber imbedded in sandstone, I think it may not be uninteresting to state an analogous observation which was made about the

end of the year 1813, on the sea-shore, in the immediate neighbourhood of Santander, in the province of Santander, in the north of Spain.

The mountains which bound and traverse the whole of the northern provinces of Spain, appear to be a continuation of the Pyrenean range-and the regular succession of the primitive and newer rocks, is very beautifully illustrated in travelling from east to west, especially in the picturesque vallies of Biscay; in the course of which, the most magnificent sections are produced by the impetuosity of the winter torrent. In that portion which skirts the shores of the province of Santander, the principal rocks are sandstone and limestone, occurring in alternate strata. Coal is found near Reynosa, in the higher districts, as well as at Laredo, on the coast. one of the lowest members of this series, close to the shore, I found a considerable mass of yellow amber, firmly imbedded in the limestone. The union was so perfect, that it was impossible to separate the amber without shattering it into small fragments. The whole was extracted, and is now in London, with some of the limestone. The fact was mentioned in letters to two scientific friends in Britain, soon after it was noticed.

NUGE LITERARIE.

I.-The Black Prince.

In

M.

THERE is a wonderful simplicity and beauty in the following humble epitaph on so great a man as the Black Prince. The author is unknown-but it would probably be composed by the best poet of the age, perhaps by Chaucer, who was at this time in the height of his reputation, and, from his travels in France, must have been well acquainted with the French language. The verses are introduced by this inscription:

Cy gist le noble Prince Monsieur Edward aisnez fils de tres noble Roy Edward Tiers: Jadis Prince D'Aquitaine et de Gales, Duc de Cornwaille, et Compte de Cestre, qi mourust en la Feste de la Trinite q'estoit le VIII. jour de juyn, l'an de grace, mil trois cens Septante sisine. L'Alme de qi Dieu eut merci, Amen.

IN Tod's Life of Spenser, in which there is to be found much valuable information regarding the studies and pursuits of this great man, and the state of English literature at that period, there is a curious letter of Spenser's friend, Harvey, in which he recommends to the author of the Faery Queen the study of Petrarch. "Thinke upon Petrarche, and perhappes it will advaunce the wings of your imagination a degree higher at least if any thing can be added to the loftiness of his conceite, whom gentle Mistress Rosalind once reported to have all the intelligences at commandment, and another time christened him Signor Pegaso." The gentle mistress Rosalind, here mentioned, was a lady to whom Spenser was early attached. It shows the poetical conversations with which

he and his mistress must have enter

tained themselves, alluding, as Tod

says, "to the pleasant days that were gone and past,"-for the lady deserted Signor Pegaso, and married his rival. In July 1580, Spenser was, by the influence of the Earl of Leicester and Sir Philip Sydney, appointed secretary to Lord Grey, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He afterwards received, on his return to England, a grant of a considerable property in the county of Cork from Queen Elizabeth. His residence, every spot around which is classic ground, is described by Smith in his Natural and Civil History of the County of Cork. The castle was then nearly level with the ground. It must have been a noble situation: a plain almost surrounded by mountains, with a lake in the middle; and the river Mulla, so often mentioned by Spenser, running through his grounds. In this romantic retreat he was visited by the noble and injured Sir Walter Raleigh, himself an accomplished scholar and poet, under whose encouragement he committed his Faery Queen to the press.

III. Quaintness of Expression. It is difficult to define precisely what we mean by the common term, quaintness of expression." It implies, I think, great simplicity of thought and language-with a certain dryness which is humorous, from the perfect gravity and good faith in which the thought is given, and the absence of all intention to excite ludiIt is, in some respect, synonymous to the French naïvé. should say, for instance, that the following sentence regarding poetical physicians was quaint.

crous ideas.

I

"Such physicians as I have marked to be good practitioners, do all piddle somewhat in the art of versifying, and raise up their contemplation very high-and their verses are not of any rare excellence."

[English Translation of Huarte's Examen de Ingenio. In the Poem of Psyche, or Love's Mystery, by Dr J. Beaumont, we have an example of quaintness of poetical expression, in the description which Aphrodisius gives of the court paid to him, and the pretty messages sent him by the ladies.

"How many a pretty embassy have I Receiv'd from them, which put me to my wit How not to understand-but by-and-by Some comment would come smiling after it, But I had other thoughts to fill my head, Books call'd me up-and books put me to bed." VOL. I.

The following ludicrous title of a collection of old poems, by George Gascoigne, has the appearance of being too intentionally absurd to be called quaint.

"A hundred sundrie flowers bound up in one small posie, gathered, partly by translation, in the fine and outlandish gardens of Euripides, Ovid, Petrarch, Ariosto, and others, and partly by invention, out of our own fruitful gardens of England--yielding sundrie sweet savours of tragicall, comicall, and moral discourses, both pleasant and profitable to the well smelling noses of learned readers."

IV. Stage Directions.

in some of our oldest English plays, It appears from the stage directions that parts of the minor speeches were left to the discretion and invention of the actors themselves. This at least ludicrous note in Edward IV." Jockey would appear, from the following very is led whipping over the stage speaking some words, but of small importance."

CROMLIX OR DUNBLANE MINERAL SPRING, &c.

MR EDITOR,

WHILE I by no means intend to detract from the celebrity of the salubrious mineral waters of Pitcaithly, &c. yet I cannot refrain from making your readers acquainted with a mineral spring which has lately come into notice in the estate of Cromlix, the property of the Earl of Kinnoul. Cromlix lies about one mile and a half north from Dunblane, and about seven miles in the same direction from the town of Stirling. Indeed there are two springs; and Dr Murray of Edinburgh, the celebrated chemist, in an ingenious paper communicated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, has given the following analysis of these, and of Pit caithly: In a pint of the water of

22.5 16

Cromlix north spring. South spring. Muriate of Soda,24 grs. Muriate of lime,.18 Sulphate of lime, 3.5 Carbonate of lime,...... 0.5

Oxide of iron,

0.17

46.17 Of Pitcaithly.

www.2.3

0.15

41.25

Muriate of soda,..........13.4 grains:
Muriate of lime,...19.5
Sulphate of lime,
Carbonate of lime,

0.9

www

0.5

34.3

3 Q